Overview

Academics

Information provided here is for use when deciding the curriculum and courses a student would like to choose. Every class on campus has a brief outline describing basic content, methodology, requirements, and prerequisites (if required). Most courses are yearlong classes. The following definitions will aid you in understanding the material presented:

Grades/GPA/Weighted Grades

SVHS offers courses that meet all our graduation requirements, college expectations and opportunities for acceleration. Courses taken at another institution may not be granted credit if the course is offered at SVHS. Only if a student has attempted and failed a course at SVHS will the student be permitted to take an equivalent course at another institution. Students must get prior approval from a counselor or administrator before signing up for a course offered at another institution. If a student wishes to accelerate beyond what is offered at SVHS prior approval must be first obtained.

Grades

Grades are based on a 4.0 scale with a semester grade of “A” earning 4.0; grade of “B” earning a 3.0; grade of “C” earning a 2.0; grade of “D” earning a 1.0; grade of “F” earning 0.

GPA

A student receives a Grade Point Average for one semester or more of work, based on the above mentioned point system.

Weighted Grades

Honors, IB, AP and certain college courses will receive a 1 point GPA increase for only grades of A, B, or C. Grades of D or F stand as earned.

Letter grades on transcripts shall remain the same, but the numerical value for GPA will be increased by one point.

All IB students must take the required internal assessment for each full year course in order to receive the weighted grade.

All year long courses must be completed in its entirety to receive a weighted grade. If dropped at a semester the student receives the grade earned.

Transfer students from other high schools may be granted a weighted GPA if the prior school granted a weighted GPA for a specific class. No un-weighted grades will be recalculated.

Accelerated students who took honors level courses in middle school will not receive weighted grades for these courses on their high school transcript.

All online instruction must be pre-approved. No course will be granted honors value simply because it is offered from a college/university. Pre-approval will be required and the content must be verified before it will be granted honors credit.

College courses taken to meet high school graduation requirements do not necessarily receive a weighted GPA value.

Students wishing to apply college level courses to meet graduation requirements must first get permission from the administration. Upon completion of the college course students will submit transcripts from the college for addition to the high school transcript.

All college courses submitted to SVHS for high school credit will be added to the transcript. It is not the privilege of the parent or student to select which courses will be added to the transcript.

College courses with a class number designation 1-9 will be granted a weighted grade. College courses labeled 10-99 will be reviewed and only given a weighted grade if it is deemed an advanced level course with a pre-requisite of a 1-9 level course. 100+ level college courses will not be granted a weighted grade.

College courses will be granted a maximum “cap” of 10 credits towards meeting high school graduation requirements.

When determining eligibility for extra-curricular activities weighted grades are not used only the letter grade will be considered.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

Courses designated “IB” are approved by the International Baccalaureate Organization and are considered advanced curriculum. Students earning an IB Diploma may receive college/university course credit, in addition to high school credit. Please check with the college/university that you are interested in, to determine how many college credits they will allow and how prestigious they consider the IB Diploma to be.

Meets UC/CSU Requirements

These are courses that the UC (University of California) and CSU (California State University) systems authorized to meet their content standards for minimum eligibility towards admission.

Graduation Requirements

To qualify for graduation and receive a diploma from Scotts Valley High School, a student must successfully complete 220 credits, perform 60 hours of community service, and pass the CA High School Exit Exam.

Scheduling Procedures & Guidelines

1. Freshmen and sophomores are expected to take six classes.

2. Juniors and seniors are required to take a minimum of five classes. Four of these required classes must take place on the SVHS campus.

3. CREDITS

♦ One semester of completed course work earns five credits. Semester grades of “F” will not earn credits.

♦ Courses in which the student received credit can not be repeated for credit, except for the following exceptions: Student Government, Yearbook, Band, Chorus, Teaching Assistant, Work Experience, and Cross-Age Tutoring. All courses are year long, with the exception of Health, World Studies 1, US Government and Economics.

4. Course requests for the Fall Semester (of the next year) are to be mailed to parents/students in the spring. Any adds or drops should be made at that time. Parents must sign the 'Course Request Form', whether there are any changes or not. This form should be returned to the school as soon as possible.

Classes may be changed the first two weeks of school for valid reasons (inaccurate academic placement, schedule conflict, or adding more classes to student’s schedule, or for work completed over the summer).

NOTE: Schedule changes will not be made to accommodate request for specific teachers or class period or to accommodate jobs or off campus courses. Students need to schedule their outside activities outside the regular school day beginning at 3:05 pm.

Students MUST remain in a class from which they are dropping, withdrawing or pursuing a level change until the change is entered into the school’s computer system and a printed copy of the new schedule reflecting the requested change is received by the student.

Concurrent Enrollment

Students attending Scotts Valley High School may, with the approval of the counselor or administrator, take community college-level courses for credit. Up to 30 credits can be documented on the high school transcript as concurrent enrollment credit.

Incomplete Grades

If you receive an incomplete semester grade (I) you have two weeks in which to make up the work. You should discuss the specific details with the teacher.

A 'Grade Change' form will be completed and returned to the Registrar by the teacher. Any assignments, tests, finals, and exams not completed within that two weeks will receive a zero (0) and the final grade for the course will be calculated accordingly.

Withdrawal Policy

A class dropped during the first three weeks of a semester is deleted from the transcript and no grade is issued.

Dropping a course after the first three weeks will result in a “Withdrawal F” for that semester. A grade of W-“F” is included in the GPA average.

Exceptions to this rule are for the following reasons only:

1) inaccurate academic placement (example -placed in a math class when you have not successfully completed a prerequisite level); or

2) for work completed over the summer (having successfully completed a summer school course to allow you to move on to the next level).